Ghatkopar building collapse: How Shiv Sena goon Sunil Shitap got away

Illegal alterations on the ground floor led to the Ghatkopar building crash that claimed 17 lives on Tuesday

There's a 70 per cent chance that the BMC could have saved all the lives lost in the Ghatkopar building collapse, if it had just done its job. The civic body was supposed to hire 252 building supervisors, or mukadams, to stop unauthorised constructions across the city, but a whopping 70 per cent of these positions was left vacant.

The Ghatkopar building crash comes exactly 10 years after a similar collapse of the Laxmi Chhaya building in Borivli

This is not the first time the BMC has failed to protect its citizens from a building collapse caused by illegal alterations. Exactly 10 years ago, the Laxmi Chhaya collapse in Borivli killed 28 residents and injured over 30, after a jeweller made illegal modifications to his ground-floor shop. The civic authorities have long known that such alterations can weaken the structure of a building, causing collapses. That is why the BMC had set up the post of building mukadams, who were tasked with keeping an eye out for unauthorised constructions. But just like the Borivli collapse all those years ago, the Corporation once again failed to prevent the Ghatkopar disaster this week.

Also read - Ghatkopar Building Collapse: Shitap was carrying out renovation illegally

The residents of Siddhi Sai building did not file any complaint against the alterations that Sena leader Sunil Shitap made to his ground-floor hospital. But the BMC can't wash off its responsibility either.

mid-day has found that of the 252 mukadam posts, only 85 have been filled - this is just around 30% of the total required strength. This means that each municipal ward has just three to four supervisors to cover the entire area. Short-staffed as they are, the supervisors only catch about 20% of the cases of the irregularities that are reported to the BMC.

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An assistant municipal commissioner said, "We are short-staffed and mainly rely on complaints from citizens and activists."

A civic official said, "The mukadams are all Class IV employees. There were many of them 10-15 years ago, but after they retired, the posts were never filled again. We are hiring in phases, and will fill the posts by promoting workers and recruiting others."

'Negligence'
Ravi Raja, Congress group leader in the BMC, said, "What happened at Ghatkopar was complete negligence by the civic officials and, thus, even they should be made party to the FIR. The BMC should take this issue seriously and appoint staff to detect unauthorised constructions on priority. The ward officials should also ensure that no one indulges in corrupt practices."

Also read - Ghatkopar building collapse: Shiv Sena leader sent to police custody till August 2

Asked about this, civic chief Ajoy Mehta said, "The inquiry report will reveal all the violations and accordingly action will be taken."

No technical knowledge
Even in cases where mukadams do site visits, they do not have the technical knowledge to tell the difference between harmless renovations and modifications that threaten the building. These supervisors are Class IV employees without any specific training for this work. This is why, three years ago, the civic body floated a proposal to appoint 'technical assistants' with the construction expertise. Needless to say, this has not happened either.

Also read - Ghatkopar building collapse: Registration of hospital was cancelled two months ago

Currently, the mukadams are asked to look for signs of construction and conduct an inspection at suspicious buildings. "If we feel there are irregularities carried out in a building and we are not allowed to enter the premises, we can issue a 24-hour notice under Section 488 of the MMC Act and then inspect the premises. In such cases, if irregularities are found, we immediately issue a stop work notice," said an official. "However, tenantable repairs such as painting, change in flooring, changing windows, also column jacketing, among others, do not need the civic body's permission and can be done by the owner or tenant on their own," he added.